Background:
5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is a biomass-derived
platform chemical, which can be produced from carbohydrates. In the past decades, 5-
HMF has received tremendous attention because of its wide applications in the
production of various value-added chemicals, materials and biofuels. The manufacture
and the catalytic conversion of 5-HMF to simple industrially-important bulk chemicals
have been well reviewed. However, employing 5-HMF as a building block in organic
synthesis has never been summarized exclusively, despite the rapid development in this
area.
Objective:
The aim of this review is to bring a fresh perspective on the use of 5-HMF in
organic synthesis, to the exclusion of already well documented conversion of 5-HMF
towards relatively simple molecules such as 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, 2,5-dimethylfuran and so on notably
used as monomers or biofuels.
Conclusion:
As it has been shown throughout this review, 5-HMF has been the object of numerous studies on
its use in fine chemical synthesis. Thanks to the presence of different functional groups on this platform
chemical, it proved to be an excellent starting material for the preparation of various fine chemicals. The use of
this C-6 synthon in novel synthetic routes is appealing, as it allows the incorporation of renewable carbonsources
into the final targets.